ICU pay differential?

Specialties Critical

Published

So I'm moving to our surgical ICU next month and have found out that I'm getting no pay increase for intensive care. I'm not the only one, the last couple of people I know to have transferred down there haven't gotten anything extra.

Is this happening anywhere else or is my hospital just ripping us off? I guess the rationale is that floor nurses are just as valuable in patient care......in which case we should be making the same as doctors too. I'm happy about moving but this has put a real damper on my anticipation.

Specializes in Emergency Room, Trauma ICU.
Maybe a union might have effected some type of differential?

To Grammar Police - should it be affected?

I've worked in Union hospitals. It goes strictly by years as a RN.

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Specializes in Med/Surg, Ortho, ASC.

Maybe a union might have effected some type of differential?

To Grammar Police - should it be affected?

A union might Effect (bring about) a differential.

A union might have an Affect (influence) on ICU salaries.

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Specializes in retired LTC.

So, was I right or wrong? Effect?

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Specializes in Critical Care, Transplant..

ICU RN's are paid more in general where I live and must have a BSN. To add some data to the pool.

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Specializes in Emergency, Trauma, Critical Care.

Everywhere I have worked in California your pay goes by experience, not unit. Some jobs Might pay a BSN 50 cents more, others do nothing. Others pay you a little extra extra if you are certified in your area (such as certified emergency nurse or CCRN). I have heard of a few hospitals in other states paying nurses more in specialty areas, but that tends to not happen many places anymore. I do see bonuses sometimes for hard to fill units. Always an indication you probably don't want to work there anyway....

I will say I've never struggled to find a job with a critical care background.

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Specializes in ICU, ED.

ICU nurses (as well as RNs in the ED and L&D) get paid a couple dollars more than floor nurses where I work. The evening/night/weekend differentials are the same though.

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ICU nurses are not paid more where I work - nor should they be (and I'm an ICU nurse). I've done both floor and ICU, and I worked a lot harder on the floor.

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Specializes in Med/Surg, Ortho, ASC.
So, was I right or wrong? Effect?

Haha! In this case you could be right either way.

The union could have effected (brought about) a raise. OR

A union could have an affect on nursing salaries.

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Specializes in Critical Care/Vascular Access.

Thanks for the input. I guess it makes me feel a little better knowing it's not uncommon. Up until this year, our hospital DID pay more for intensive care nurses, and I thought it made sense. Most people around here are surprised there's no differential too, so it must be a regional thing I'm assuming.

Yes, floor nurses are just as valuable in the grand scheme of patient care, but intensive care nursing is more specialized. You are required advanced certifications and more specialized knowledge than general med/surg nurses. There's a reason floor nurses are never pulled to the unit when their staffing is short (where I work they're not anyway, unless they've had unit experience), but between all med/surg floors we float frequently (oncology, surgical, cardiac, medical, renal, etc). I never had a problem knowing the unit nurses made a higher base pay than me because I felt like they deserved it. It's not that they worked harder, but the job requires a different and usually more learned skill set. Also, intensive care experience makes you a more valued and versatile nurse on the job market.

The doctor comparison was a little sarcastic, but if the idea is that everyone is paid according to how valuable they are in the paradigm of patient care, then it's fair to say the doctors are just as dependent on us as we are on them.

Either way, I wasn't throwing a fit about it, to me it just made sense that a more specialized field would pay more.

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I'm not sure why you think people need advanced certifications to work ICU. CCRN is a not a requirement to be a unit nurse (just as PCCN is not required to do telemetry). Certifications are optional and not indicative of qualifications or lack thereof for critical care.

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Specializes in Critical Care/Vascular Access.
I'm not sure why you think people need advanced certifications to work ICU. CCRN is a not a requirement to be a unit nurse (just as PCCN is not required to do telemetry). Certifications are optional and not indicative of qualifications or lack thereof for critical care.

Well, for one example, ACLS is required for our ICU's. We also are required to go through an intensive care training course, but maybe that's not common elsewhere. I haven't worked many places so I don't have many other points of reference aside from talking to people.

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Specializes in NICU.

Where I work all nurses in ICU have to have ACLS and a 5 week critical care course run by my hospital.

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